Method and apparatus for treating printed rugs



Dec. 17, 1940. M. R. GREISER METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR TREATING PRINTEDRUGS Filed April l2, 1937 2:5 m E m E M m R Q E M m 3 L 0 m Nu 5 NW w. mw w QM QN I N o s Q\ 3W. 2 N NN MN Patented Dec. 17,

IWETHOD AND APPARATUS FOR TREATING PRINTED BUGS Melvin R. Greiser,Cincinnati, Ohio, assignor to Cart a corporation of Ohio hage MillsIncorp orated, Carthage, Ohio,

Application April 12, 1937, Serial No. 136,376

. 3 Claims. (01. 91-519) A market has been created in recent years forrugs made of a fabric characterized'by a pile and bearing a designformed by a printing operation. v y

5 My present invention is not limited as to the kind or character offabricbeing treated but is directed to the solution of certain problemscommon to all woven fabrics of the general class referred to, which areprinted upon printing ma- 1o chines of the general type heretoforeemployed in the manufacture of felt base flooring. The

printing machine employed, and the one which I shall briefly describefor the purpose of making an exemplary disclosure, is a step-by-stepprinting machine having a table, a plurality of vertically reciprocableprinting blocks and a plurality of horizontally reciprocable diefountains or pans for coating the printing surfaces of the blocks,together with suitable means for operat- 0 ing these elements.Lengthwise of the table and at either side there are moving conveyormeans having pointed pins upon which the edges of the so-called web'ofsoft goods are impaled. These means not only tend to keep "the webstretched across the table but alsohave to do with the movement of theweb to bring it toproper registry beneath the printing. blocks. Theprinting of the rug design is done wholly within the impaled edgessothat when the'printing of the 3o rugs is finished, the edge portions ofthe sheet have to be cut off as by means of rotary slitters.-'

Also, since the printing is done on long webs, the web has to be severedin 'the space between rugs.. Thus when the printing is done upon Ina--terial comprising a woven fabric base as is usual, there will be nowovenselvdge edge in the completed'rug since all edges have been formedby a slitting or shearing operation. It has beenthe practice in the pasttcuse fabrics which have 40 latex so that the rubber tends to preventfraying and raveling of the'rug along the cut edges. This, however, is amatter of very considerable been given one or more back coatings ofrubber expense, and it is an object of my invention to process and meansare economical and can be.

used and practiced during the ordinary operation of making the rugwithout interruption; thereof. It will be understood that these rugs areprinted face side up, and also that the slit- -mordant as at- It, afterwhich the printing is ting operation for cutting away the perforatedside edges is usually practiced immediately after the completion of theprinting operation. It may be pointed out that it is the side edges ofthe rug which present'the greatest problem be- 6 cause many rugs areprovided with fringe at the ends and the sewing of the fringe to theends of the rug usually is effective in preventing fraying at the ends.

The several objects of my invention which 10 have been pointed outhereinabove or will be apparent to one skilled in the art upon readingthese specifications, I accomplish by that certain structure andarrangement of parts of which I shall now describethe aforesaid ex- 15emplary embodiment. Reference is made to the drawing wherein:

' Figure 1 is an elevational view with parts in section of an exemplarymachine embodying my invention. a v

. Fig. 2 is a plan view of a strip of material after having been givenmy treatment.

Fig. 3 is a sectional view through the machin taken along the lines 3-3of Fig. 1 and showing the action of pressure members.

Fig. 4 is a sectional view of the edge of a completed rug.

In Fig. 1, I have shown a machine comprising a bed I, above which,aremounted for vertical reciprocation certain frame members 2, carryingprinting blocks indicated at 4. There are the usual mechanical means foractuating these printing blocks. Pans 5 are mounted for horizontalsliding movement on the bed and contain the ink or dye used to coat theprinting blocks. Before the making .of an. impression the .blocks arecoated, as is well understood, by rolls in these pans, the pans androlls sliding beneath the blocks. A web of fabric 6 is shown'as beingunwound from a roll 'I and as being impaled upon the points 8 of a chainconveyor member 9' so as to carry it along the bed of the machine. Infollowing the practice of my copending application-, the sheet or web isfirst treated with acarried on by means of the printing blocks. Thisobviates the use of mordant with the dye and gives a:better printingoperation. The ma'-. chine in Fig. 1 is shown diagrammatically and"considerably fore-shortened. It will be under.

'stood that there will be a series of printing blocks for printing themain design of the rugs and also a series of printing blocks forprinting the and border designs, as is well understood in this art. l

My invention is based upon my discovery that I can print rubber latexonto the face of the fabric with suitable printing means and then by theimmediate application of pressure means drive the latex down through thepile of the fabric and into the base web thereof, all as a continuousoperation and without interruption of the printing.

To this end I have shown in Fig. 1, a printing 1o block ll arranged forreciprocation in the ordinary way and so actuated by the mechanicalmovement means of the machine that it will print between the end bordersof adjacent rugs. This printing block has essentially a long narrowprinting surface l2 extending across the sheet substantially from sideto side, and so located as to print between the end borders of the rug.The printing surface I2 is fed with rubber latex or other suitablesubstance for the purpose, by means of theordinary printing pan orfountain i3 actuated in the usual manner.

After the rubber --latex has been printed upon the web at the placeindicated, the web moves forward a step as in current practice in thesemachines, and comes between the cooperating parts of a pressuremechanism which I will now describe. On standards l4, one on either sideof the machine, I mount a cross bar l5 beneath the table and bearing apressure die IS, the standards I4 having a cross head I'I located abovethe table.

One or more pressure means, such as fluid pressure cylinders l8, arelocated on this cross head and the pistons of these cylinders H! areconnected by means of rods 20 to a head 2| bearing a cooperatingpressure member 22. A suitable valve 23 may be provided to actuate thecylinder or cylinders l8 and thereby to move the head 2| to bring thepressure elements 16 and 22 together under great force.

Thus immediately after the web has been printed by the printing surfacel2 with a line of latex 24 (see Fig. 2) lying between adjacent rugs 25and 26, the movement of the mechanism brings the line 24 between thepressure members l6 and 22. These by the operation of the valve 23 (itis within the skill of the man in the art to couple up this valve withthe operating mechanism of the machine so as to give to the movement ofthe head 2| the same time relationships as have the movements of theprinting heads) are brought together against the fabric, and before thelatex has dried, it is squeezed down into the base web or Webs of thefabric.

It is within the scope of my invention to apply pressure to the printedlatex surface in any way desired. I have illustrated a fluid pressurecylinder arrangement as exemplary only of my invention. Other mechanicalor electrical devices may be employed.

For the treatment of the side edges of the fabric as at 21 in Fig. 2, Iprovide additional printing means. These comprise one or more printingheads 28 in Fig. 1 having printing surfaces 29 located near the edges ofthe web and extending longitudinally. The printing surface 29 is fed'with latex from a suitable pan 30. The result of the operation of theprinting head or heads 28 is to form a printed line of latex at theedges of the .rug. I can, if preferred, provide the same general type ofpressure means for treating these lines of latex; but because the fabricupon which the rug designs are being printed has a longitudinalmovement, I have found it possible to providea simpler continuouslyacting mechanism. I have shown such a mechanism in Fig. 1, where 3|indicates a roll journaled beneath the table, and 32 a roll journaledthereabove in bearings slidable in a housing 33 having suitable screwdown or pressure control means 34. The rolls 32 and 3| need not besubstantially wider than the printed strip of latex 21. An action isshown in Fig. 3. Advantageously one of the rolls may have slightlyconvex outer surfaces, the outer surfaces of the other roll beingcorrespondingly concave. Fig. 3 indicates how the latex 35 is squeezeddown into the 10 compressed fabric so as to penetrate the base web 6athereof.

Usually the active compression of the rubber latex squeezes so muchwater out of it as to cause coagulation thereof, eliminating thenecessity of 15 aseparate drying operation. In any event, when the latexhas set, the rugs may be slit or sheared in the areas 21 or 24 withoutfraying or raveling. Depending somewhat upon the quantity of latexemployed, it will be found that the portion of the 20 rug subjected tocompression has its napmatted and bound by the latex; but this formsonly an exceedingly narrow margin at the edges of the rug and isordinarily entirely unobtrusive and inconspicuous when the rug is inuse. Normally the 25 width of the compressed area along the side of arug after shearing will be of the order say of a quarter of an inch, andin some instances less. Nevertheless binding of the threads of the baseor body fabric together by means of latex pre- 1 vents fraying orraveling of the base fabric, and the same effect is secured in thisregard as would be secured by an exceedingly expensive operation ofcoating the whole of the rear face of the rug fabric with latex.Moreover, I have succeeded in 35 securing this effect by an operationwhich does not interrupt the printing, which is a printing operationitself, and which is carried on essentially from the same side of therug as is the design printing, so that there is no problem in my methodof reversing the fabric and backcoating it. The operation does not slowup the printing since it is carried on in timed relationship to it, doesnot require a great quantity of extra machinery and is very simple andeasy to perform. It gives an adequate non-raveling effect and somemeasure of anti-slippage effect at the edges of the rug.

Modifications may be made in my invention without departing fromthespirit of it, as will be 50 evident. Likewise, there are a number ofequivalents for the particular mechanism shown, and it is well withinthe skill of the Worker in the art to adapt the teachings of thisspecification to the printing of rugs by other means, all without the 56exercise of invention. Consequently, I desire the appended claims to" beconstrued as not limited otherwise than as set forth in their expressterms.

Having thus described my invention, what I claim as new and desire tosecure by Letters 60 Patent, is:

' 1. A method of making pile fabric rugs which includes the steps ofprinting on the pile face of a web transverse bands and longitudinalmarginal bands with a latex cement, pressing said 65 cement bands intothe fabric and slitting said treated fabric along lines intermediatelythrough said bands whereby to produce individual rugs having edgeportions which will not ravel.

2. A method of making pile fabric rugs which 70 includes the steps ofprinting on the pile face of a web transverse bands and longitudinalmarginal bands with a fluid rubber, pressing said fluid rubber into thefabric and slitting said treated fabric along lines intermediatelythrough 76 said bands whereby to produce individual rugs having edgeportions which will not ravel.

3. A method of making so-called soft goods rugs characterized by a pileand having a base comprising a woven fabric which includes the steps ofprinting a design on the face of such fabric, and concurrently printingmarginal portions and transverse bands on the pile face with a latexcement, and immediately thereafter treating said portions which havebeen printed with latex cement, with heavy pressure to force said cementinto the fabric, and slitting said fabric along lines intermediatelythrough said cement 5 treated portions, whereby to produce individualrugs having edge portions which will not ravel. MELVIN R. GREISER.

